Rail anchor



J. A. BODKIN.

RAIL ANCHOR. AP LiCATION m'zn JULY 27,1921.

Patented Oct. 3, 1922.

. I w gvr k @QQZM A TTOR/VEYJ Fatentcd Get. 3, 1922.

] l E i S T A T E S 1,431,09e PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN A. BODKHQ', OF NEW YORK, Y., ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF T0 WELLINGTON B.

LEE, OF BALDWIN, NEW YORK. l

nan. Ancison.

Application filed July .27,

To aZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN A. BonKIN, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of the borou h of Manhattan, in the city, county, and tate ofNew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in RailAnchors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to an improved rail anchor designed for the purposeof preventing creeping of railroad rails.

As well known, rails are held to the ties of the track by spikes whichare driven into the ties with their heads overlapping the edge of therail flange, the rails, of course, being spliced to each other atintervals. Difiiculty is experienced with such a construction withcreeping of the rails which tends to force the ties out of place.

It is Well known that all rails creep more or less, and on double trackroads where the traffic on one set of rails is continuously in onedirection the creepage is more pronounced. The effect of creeping ismanifested in numerous ways, as by bunched or slowed joint ties, lockedswitches, deranged crossings, and so forth. While creeping at the pointof origin is almost imperceptible, yet as the creeping builds up thetracks will be deranged eventually at some point. The point of origin iswhere the train takes on speed and if the first rail is successfullyheld against creep it is an easy matter to prevent creeping of the otherrails.

It is an object of my invention to provide a simple and inexpensivemeans for overcoming creeping by rigidly connecting a number of tiestogether, particularly at the rail joints, which enables me to obtainsubstantially maximum ballast resistance.

In general, my invention comprises a de vice so shaped as to be capableof being driven into two or more ties to rigidly secure the ties to eachother, thereby obtaining the maximum ballast resistance, that is to say,resistance to movement of the ties in the ballast. This, of course, verymaterially decreases,-in fact substantially eliminates,rail creeping.

Briefly, my improved anchor comprises a U-shaped member, the legs ofwhich are bent at an angle to the body portion there of and providedwith cutting faces extending parallel to the body portion of the anchor.I have found in practice that by pro- 1921.. Serial no. 487,841.

track with several of my improved anchors applied thereto.

Referring to the drawings in detail and first of all to Fig. 1,it willbe seen that my improved anchor comprises a body portion A and legs BB,these legs being'bent at an angle to the body portion so that the anchoras viewed in Fig. 1 may be said to be substantially U-shaped. The legsB-B are each provided with beveled faces C Which form a cutting edge andas will be seen from Fig. 1 are substantially parallel to the bodyportion A.

It will be understood, of course, that each leg B may be provided withone or two beveled faces C as desired.

In Fig. 2 D indicates rails which are spiked to ties E in the usualmanner, the ties resting in the ballast F of the road bed. At G there isa joint in the rails and one of my anchors 4: has been driven into a tieat each side of this joint.

As will be seen from Fig. 2, the anchor is preferably also applied toother ties along the track and it is to be understood, of course, thatthe anchor may be made of any convenient length so as to span more thantwo ties if desired.

As above pointed out the beveled faces C are parallel or substantiallyparallel to the body portion A of the rail anchor so that when the railanchor is driven into the ties checking or splitting of the ties isprevented.

From the foregoing it will be seen that I have provided an improved railanchor adapted to be applied to two or more ties of a track to which therails are secured, where by the ties to which the rail anchor is appliedWill be rigidly secured to each other to offer an increased resistanceto movement of the ties in the ballast of the road bed to therebyeliminate or substantially eliminate creeping of the rails.

While I have described a specific embodiment of my invention it is to beunderstood that changes may be made therein without departing from thespirit and scope of my invention ;for example, the rail anchorillustrated is substantially square in cross section whereas, as amatter of fact, it could just as well be round or halfround for example.Likewise, the legs B have been shown bent at substantially right anglesto the body portion A whereas it comes within the scope of my inventionto vary this angle as desired.

What is claimed as new is:

, A rail anchor comprising a body portion,

JOHN A. BODKIN.

